Sunil Mittal on digital infrastructure
From Sunil Bharti Mittal Speaks On How India Is On The Path Of Democracy At India Economic Conclave · · ET Now
“The beauty that we have in India is of scale. Can you imagine if India were to be providing connectivity or digital solutions at $50, $60, $70 a month, we would have had only a sliver of population enjoying the benefits and would not have been able to democratize the benefits of digitization. At $2.50 today, possibly $3, you will have ton of data guzzling capability, full connectivity devices that will talk about your health and education provision, your e-commerce to payments.”
On , Sunil Mittal, Chairman at Bharti Airtel, spoke about digital infrastructure during Sunil Bharti Mittal Speaks On How India Is On The Path Of Democracy At India Economic Conclave on ET Now.
About Sunil Mittal
Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, participated in a conference call following the company's Q4 FY26 results, where he discussed plans to increase ownership in Airtel Africa over the next several years, describing a $3 billion share-exchange transaction as akin to acquiring a business the company knows deeply. He stated that the company's capital allocation priorities are investing in the core business, deleveraging, adjacencies such as data centers and financial services, and progressively increasing dividends. Mittal noted that the company's planned investment of 20,000 crore rupees in financial services over five years would likely be "significantly less" than that amount, and that Airtel is looking for a "very small controlled financial services business." Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026, Mittal urged Indian industry to increase domestic investment and reduce dependence on imports, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for economic self-reliance. He said India needs to "get away from this obsession of import of gold," lower energy costs, and move faster toward renewable energy, adding that "this is the moment to invest double down in our own country." In a separate fireside chat, Mittal called on the GSMA to be more aggressive in advocating for market consolidation, citing India and China as examples where consolidation has led to lower tariffs and better network quality. He also described Airtel as a $130 billion company with 600 million customers across 17 countries, and highlighted the company's use of AI to block 71 billion spam calls and nearly a million fraudulent links.